A direct comparison of “MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro “in 2018. Which one to buy for a better value for money?

Till the time we had ancient Macbook Air 2014 edition, there was no comparison between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. But, now since Apple released the new edition of MacBook Air 2018 and priced very close to the price of MacBook Pro without Touch Bar. There are chances that you might consider buying MacBook Air for $1200(price starts in India at Rs 114,500) instead of MacBook Pro at $1300( priced at Rs 118,000 in India). Here is a direct head to head comparison of MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro.

To make a direct comparison we have two of the products priced very similar. The 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar is priced for $1300 with the base model. While the base model of MacBook Air 2018 is available for $1200. Apart from the pricing, there are a few more similarities like Retina displays, same keyboards but they are different in a few ways.

Here is the MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro Comparison

MACBOOK AIR VS MACBOOK PRO – WHICH ONE TO BUY?

Design & Display

Both the MacBooks have a very similar kind of design. These two laptops having 13-inch Screen have aluminum finish design but there is a small difference. The MacBook Air has Gold and Silver Color instead of Space grey color on the Macbook pro. Also, the Retina display is the same for both the devices having a resolution of 2560×1600 pixels. This gives us the pixel density of 227 pixels per inch. two of these MacBooks have similar third-generation butterfly keyboards and bigger trackpads.

But there is a small difference that is in terms of the weight of these two MacBooks. The MacBook Pro weighs 3.2 pounds/ 1.45 kg while the other one MacBook Air weighs only 2.2 pounds i.e. almost a kg. This is a big difference as the name of the product says Air meaning minimum weight like air on MacBook Air. In terms of design and display, the difference in MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro is of weight and a bit of color.

Security

There is no touch bar on the Apple MacBook Air. But we are comparing it with the base model of MacBook Pro without the touch bar. So there is no point of touch bar in comparison. However, the MacBook Air has Touch ID for security. This does the job of unlocking the device, secure payments etc.

Performance

The MacBook Air comes with dual-core 7th generation Intel i5 processor that works at 2.3 GHz. This can be clocked up to 3.6 GHz with Turbo Boost. The 8th generation model is also there but the price is $1500 for that. On the other hand, the MacBook Air has 1.6 GHz dual-core 8th generation Intel Core i5 processor running inside. With the help of Turbo Boost, this can be clocked up to 3.6 GHz. There is 8GB RAM and 128 GB SSD on MacBook Air.

These two are almost similar but MacBook Pro beats MacBook Air in terms of performance. For an additional $100, you get better performance in terms of higher clock speed. This may not be the that big difference if we do normal things on your machine. But for tasks like video editing, core counts matter and MacBook Pro wins the game. So for people doing video editing may choose MacBook Pro from MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro due to higher core counts.

Portability

In terms of Portability, MacBook Air always wins the game due to its lightweight. Firstly when the MacBook Air was introduced in 2008, Steve Jobs removed MacBook from an envelope. And that is still possible with the new MacBook Air too.

The MacBook Pro is 0.59 inches thick and 11.97 inches wide while the MacBook Air has same 11.97 inches wideness. But thickness is 0.16-0.61 inches. Obviously, MacBook Air wins the game of portability between MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro. The concept of MacBook Air is to make an ultra-thin laptop for daily usage that is capable of taking heavy loads too.

Coming to the point which one you should buy between MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro?

Since we have discussed the differences between these two products. There aren’t any major differences in these two products. The comparison MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro says that MacBook Air is cheaper, lighter, giving the same level of performance and priced lesser. Our true suggestion is that you should pick MacBook Air between these two products due to above-mentioned reasons. The MacBook Pro gives you higher clock speed nothing else for an additional $100. While the MacBook Air gives you the latest butterfly keyboard, Touch ID, stunning design, lightweight laptop for traveling. And the MacBook Air is capable of doing heavy tasks like video editing faster than most of the windows laptops at the same price segment.

If you are looking to buy a laptop for video editing around Rs 50,000 in India. Whether be it for Youtube purpose or any other kind of video editing, you can choose Macbook Air 2014 edition that will do your job of video editing. The only problem is display on the MacBook Air 2014.